2012 IEEE Symposium on Computers & Informatics

A Proposal of Small Linear Actuators

for Small Entertainment Robots
Yasuaki Horima and Tomoharu Nagao
Graduate School of Environment
and Information Sciences
Yokohama National University
Email: horima@nlab.sogo1.ynu.ac.jp / nagao@ynu.ac.jp

AbstractThis paper describes about a small linear actuator.

In recent, there have appeared miniature direct current electric
(DC) motors. Then, we propose a linear actuator consisting
of a DC motor, a pair of spiral springs and cylinders. The
principle of the actuator is simple. The DC motor rotates a
spring directly. The rotated spring gears the other one and goes
in or out of the spiral interspace. As a result, the actuator
elongates and contracts. Our actuator is controlled by a ON-
OFF signal and inversion of a current. We made the actuator
experimentally and constructed a light and small locomotion
robot with proposed actuators as an application. In simulation, Fig. 1. Principle of proposed actuator.
we obtained parameters for locomotion of the robot by using
genetic algorithm. The robot realized walking by switching on
or off the current and changing the polarity of the current. Section II gives the principle of a small linear actuator and
Index TermsMiniature DC motor, Small linear actuator, the characteristics of trial actuators. We show an application of
Small robots.
small linear actuators in section III. Section IV gives motion
I. I NTRODUCTION of the application. Parameters for actuation are obtained by a
heuristic method in simulation. In section V, conclusions and
In recent, many researchers focus on soft actuators and have
future works are presented finally.
been developed and investigated them such as shape mem-
ory alloy[1][2], ion-exchange polymer metal composite[3][4], II. P ROPOSE A SMALL LINER ACTUATOR
pneumatic actuators[5][6], and so on. Most soft actuators are
This section describes the principle of a small liner actuator
artificial muscles, and robots with them have flexibility. They
and trial products of the actuator. We focus attention on down-
are able to be generally applied to robots that require soft
sizing of DC motors that are use of vibrators in cellular phones
movements, soft joints or soft bodies. Soft actuators are ex-
or engines for model planes and radio control helicopters. In
pected to be sufficient for demands to lighten and miniaturize
addition, we expect elasticity of the springs to bring flexibility
actuators. Hence, we assume that popularization of them takes
of the actuator. Therefore, we propose the actuator consisting
more time. Meanwhile, electrical motors have been widely
of a miniature DC motor and a pair of springs. In this paper,
used as driving actuators of various robots. Most actuators
we define flexibility as elasticity along the axis of the actuator
of the traditional electrical motor mechanisms combine joints
which enable a curvilinear actuator.
with bones. Robots with those actuators are equipped with
hard joints and we are able to affirm that when we touch it. A. Principle
Therefore, those actuators are unsuitable for demands of soft
The structure of the actuator is very simple. Figure 1
and light robots because of their hardness and weight. On the
illustrates the principle of the actuator. The actuator is driven
other hand, electrical motors have been miniaturized recently.
by rotating a spiral spring that is connected to a DC motor
In this paper, we focus on their motors which are in
directly. The spiral spring is engaged with the other one.
widespread use. We employed the miniature direct current
Therefore, by rotation of the spring with the DC motor, it
electric (DC) motor in order to make a soft actuator and
goes in or out of the spiral interspace of the other one. The
propose a small linear actuator1 . The actuator is a kind of
maximum or minimum length of the actuator is shown in
spiral linear motors[7]. The proposed actuator consists of two
Fig.2. The actuator can not be driven without engagement of
spiral springs. One is a stator and the other is a mover. The
springs. Hence, the range of engagement of the springs is the
mover is rotated by the miniature DC motor. This structure
minimum when it fully elongates and the maximum length
brings flexibility of the actuator. We aim to make a substitute
of the actuator is nearly equal to 2Ls +Lm . That shows in
of soft actuators before popularization of them.
Fig.2(a). Ls is the length of a spring and Lm is the length
1 The actuator has already applied for the patent about this actuator. of the motor in Fig.1 and 2. On the other hand, the actuator

978-1-4673-1686-6/12/$26.00 2012 IEEE 130


(a) The maximum of elongation
(b) The minimum of contraction
Fig. 2. Elongation and contraction of a proposed actuator.
Fig. 3. An example of obstruction to coming out of the actuator.
Fig. 4. An example of curvilinear actuator.
can not contract when the springs are geared throughly. Figure
2(b) shows the minimum length of the actuator that is about
Ls +Lm . The length of actuators is decided by Ls and Lm . It is
easy to change Ls especially because there are various lengths
of the springs.
When the actuator fully elongates, the spring with the DC
motor come out of the other one. We need to deal with this
problem. We need a stopper in the cylinders as shown in Fig.3
so that the spring with the DC motor keeps geared with the
other spring. Furthermore, if cylinders are soft materials like
hard rubbers, it is possible to make curvilinear actuators such
as an illustrated example in Fig.4 because cylinders work as
a guide of springs. The friction on cylinders and the required
torque of curvilinear actuators are larger than that of linear
actuators generally.
There are four characteristics of the actuators. First, the
actuator can keep the length at elongation or contraction
because of geared springs when rotation of the spring stops.
131
Fig. 5. Flexibility of the actuator at holding that.
TABLE I
P ROPERTY OF THE MINIATURE DC MOTOR .
Voltage 3.7[V]
Current(no load) under 0.04[A]
Speed(no load) 4600010%[rpm]
Current(stall) under 1.0[A]
Torque(stall) 8.0[gcm]
Noise under 78[dB]
Length including a shaft 18.4[mm](0.3)
Length of a shaft 4.5[mm](0.5)
Radius of a shaft 0.8[mm]
Second, because it is a small and linear actuator, it does not
need much space. It sets along bony frameworks like muscles
and realizes smaller joints. Third, if the force of the actuator
lacks, the lack is compensated by bundling actuators. We
expect the force of a bundled actuator to show a liner increase
with the number of employed actuators. At last, the actuator
has flexibility. The actuator is available for a substitute of
artificial muscles because of its flexibility until they become
widely used.
On the other hand, we have some problems about this
actuator. Because the actuator is driven by a miniature DC
motor, the torque of the motor might be too low to drive it.
Additionally, the precision control of the DC motor is difficult.
DC motors can not rotate at the specified rotation number
because of transitional phase of reaching steady rotation or
stopping rotation completely. Thereby, the actuator is suitable
for the small entertainment robots such as small robotic pets.
Their robots do not require large force of actuators. We
consider it is sufficient to realize the motion of their robots
with the actuators. The difficult control of the current to realize
the motion of their robots can be obtained by heuristic methods
such as genetic algorithm (GA)[8], reinforcement learning[9]
and so on.
B. Trial actuator
We made the actuator experimentally. We demonstrated
whether the trial products were actuated based on proposed
principle or not. Materials used for the actuator were a
miniature DC motor, paired compression coil springs, plastic
cylinders, and a screw. The radius of the miniature DC motor
is six millimeters. Table I and II show the properties of
the DC motor and the property of compression coil springs,
respectively.
The DC motor was connected with the spring and the
cylinder by a epoxy bonding agent that became indurated by
the passage of time. First, the shaft of the DC motor was
enlarged by daubing a epoxy bonding agent on it. Afterward,
the enlarged shaft was bonded with the spring. In this way,
 TABLE II
P ROPERTY OF COMPRESSION COIL SPRINGS .
Rate of spring 0.2910%[N/mm]
Radius 4.0[mm]
Length 25.0[mm]
Radius of metallic wire 0.45[mm]
Length at cohering 7.2[mm]
Permissible amount of flexure 15.0[mm]
Maximum load 4.4[N]
Fig. 6. Parts of the trial actuator.
the thin shaft can not drop from the glue with the spring. The
screw connected the other spring and the cylinder. The screw
tucked in the spring and the cylinder. Then, the springs was
lubricated with oil. Finally, the trial actuator were constructed
by combining two parts of the actuator. In this way, we made
four trial actuators. In Fig.6, two parts of the actuator is
shown. The larger one is with the DC motor. The actuator
is driven between 17.5 millimeters as shown in Fig.7. The
minimum length of the actuator is 47.5 millimeters and the
maximum length is 65 millimeters. The range of contraction
or elongation is shorter than the length of the spring. The
length of the spring is 25 millimeters. This is caused by the
space for connecting the DC motor.
We investigated characteristics of the trial actuators. Figure
8 shows contractile characteristics for each time of actuation
with a load and elongation characteristics of that is shown
in Fig.9. The trial actuators were driven for given time and
we measured the length of contraction or elongation. The
actuators pulled down weights when those contracted and
lifted up weights when those elongated. In Fig.8 and Fig.9, the
actuators is driven with no load when W is equal to 0.0182[N]
because a load of the stator is 0.0182[N]. We measured the
length ten times and shows the average of the length and the
top and bottom of error in Fig.8, 9. The amount of changing
the length at contraction increased linearly and we were not
able to observe the delay time of stating contraction with
each load. On the other hand, the amount of changing the
length at elongation increased with the delay time of starting
elongation with each load. In addition, the increments of
the amount was not linear by the specific time. After that,
the increments changed to linear increase. The characteristic
of contraction is shown about the maximum velocity of the
actuators. Furthermore, the characteristics of elongation were
similar to the transient response and relationship between the
torque and the rotating velocity of DC motors. We employed a
miniature DC motor as the prime mover of the trial actuators.
Therefore, the characteristics of the actuators were similar to
those of DC motors. Additionally, We observed variation in
132
(a) The maximum of elongation
(b) The minimum of contraction
Fig. 7. Range of elongation and contraction of a trial actuator.
the length of contraction and elongation. The reason is the
inertial of the actuators. The actuator do not stop at a specified
length because DC motors rotate by inertial when the current
is switched off.
Figure 10 shows the maximum force of the actuators. We
actuated the trial products with a load for given time and
measured the force of those. The actuators lifted up weights
and we measured the weight that the actuators was not able to
lifted up by each time. The obtained weight indicate the force
of the actuators at each time. In Fig,10, we observed that the
force of the actuators increase significantly in the early time
of actuation. Afterward, the force converge at a constant value
and that value is 0.778[N]. Thereby, the maximum weight that
the actuators lifted up was 79.33 grams.
In this trial, we omitted a provision for coming out of the
actuator and a form of curvilinear by employing soft materials
for cylinders. When we made a actuator experimentally, it was
uncertain whether the torque of the DC motor is enough or
not. Therefore, we made a linear actuator that required lower
torque than curvilinear one. Furthermore, the friction of the
plastic cylinders is less than soft materials that we were able
to prepare.
III. A PPLICATION OF SMALL LINEAR ACTUATORS
We describe a light and small robot made with the trial
actuators. The robot consists of plastic blocks, and thus it
is only about 65.22 grams. The size of the robot is shown
in Fig.11. We constructed the robot with four movable joints
and four trial actuators. Front legs of the robot are actuated
by contraction and elongation of each actuator and the robot
 20 W:0.0182
W:0.2009
18 W:0.3816
W:0.8319

16

14

12
Length[mm]

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Fig. 11. light and small robot.
Time[msec]

Fig. 8. Contractile characteristics for each time of actuation with a load.

20 W:0.0182
W:0.2009
18 W:0.3821
W:0.7433

16

14

12
Length[mm]

10

2
Fig. 12. Number of joints of light and small robot.
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Time[msec]

by every ten milliseconds. The robot locomotes with lifting

Fig. 9. Elongation characteristics for each time of actuation with a load.
each legs forward and pulling up its body by contraction of
actuators.
0.8

IV. L OCOMOTION OF A LIGHT AND SMALL ROBOT

0.7
This section describes the experiment for obtaining the
0.6 locomotion of the light and small robot that is introduced
in previous section. We obtained the parameters realizing the
0.5 locomotion by using GA. It is difficult to control the actuators
Force[N]

because the elongating or the contracting length of the actu-

0.4 ators is not stable. Therefore, in simulation, we constructed
a model of the robot and obtained the parameters for the
0.3
locomotion. The model were actuated according to parameters
generated by GA and the parameters were evaluated by the
0.2
distance of the forward movement. Then, the actual robot was
0.1
driven by the parameters obtained in simulation.
0 20 40 60 80 100
Time[msec]
A. Simulation
Fig. 10. Maximum force for each time of actuation. We used Open Dynamics Engine (http://www.ode.org) as a
simulator. That is physically realistic simulation environment.
The model of the robot has the same size and weight of the
equip two wheels as its rear legs. The actuators are equipped actual robot. We show parameters of actuating the robot in
with front legs of the robot as shown in Fig.12. The robot table III and parameters of GA in table IV. The commands
is controlled by a microcomputer and the commands are sent of the microcomputer were sent for ten milliseconds and we

133
 TABLE III
PARAMETERS OF ACTUATING THE ROBOT. in this experiment, we did not took the characteristics of the
Waiting time for starting drive:Ts 0 - 630 -1260[msec] actuators into account in simulation. We observed that the trial
Time at elongation:Te 0 - 630[msec] actuators were unstable about the amount of changing length
Time at contraction:Tc 0 - 630[msec] at elongation or contraction in Fig.8, 9. In addition, the range
Waiting time after elongation:Tew 10 - 640[msec] of engagement of the springs affects the force of the actuators.
Waiting time after contraction:Tcw 10 - 640[msec] Therefore, we should investigate characteristics of small linear
actuators much more and implement them in simulation.
TABLE IV
PARAMETER OF GENETIC ALGORITHM . V. C ONCLUSION
Generation 500 This paper has described a small linear actuator driven di-
Number of individuals 50 rectly by a miniature DC motor. We have introduced principle
Gene length 78[bit] of the actuator and trial products. After that, we have inves-
Crossover type Uniformly crossover tigated characteristics of the trial actuators. The investigation
Crossover rate 0.8
Mutation rate 0.03 has shown inconstant actuation of them in the same situation
and the amount of changing at elongation or contraction for the
time when the actuator is driven. We need to consider how we
TABLE V
PARAMETERS OBTAINED BY GENETIC ALGORITHM .
make output of actuators stable. Then, we have constructed a
light and small robot with the trial actuators as an application.
No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4
Ts [msec] 620 290 1220 890 We have obtained parameters for the motion of the robot with
Te [msec] 470 550 470 550 GA and the robot has realized walking. However, the motion
Tc [msec] 470 550 470 550 has differed from that of the model of the robot in simulation.
Tew [msec] 630 430 140 400 In order to construct desirable motion of the robot, we must
Tcw [msec] 180 210 640 170 investigate characteristics of the actuator in exact detail and
implement them in simulation. In addition, our future works
are development of curvilinear actuators and also investigation
divided each operating time (Ts , Te , Tc , Tew , Tcw ) into each into characteristics of that.
ten milliseconds increments in between. Hence, resolution of R EFERENCES
each time is ten milliseconds.
[1] E. Smith, A. Villanueva, K. Joshi, Y. Tadesse and S. Priya, Working
Actuators must be driven repeatedly. Te of each actuators principle of bio-inspired shape memory alloy composite actuators, Smart
is equal to Tc because actuators need to contract as long as Materials and Structures, Volume 20, Number 1, 2011.
the length at elongation for the repeated motion. We expected [2] M. Nishida, K. Tanaka, Application of FFP-Actuators to Legged Loco-
motion Robots., IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots
the symmetrical motion for the forward locomotion of the and Systems, 2007.
symmetrical robot. Therefore, Te of No.1 and No.2 is equal to [3] K. Jung, J. Nam, H. Choi, Investigations on actuation characteristics
Te of No.3 and No.4 respectively. In addtion, we add 0640 of IPMC artificial muscle actuator, Sensors and Actuators A: Physical,
Volume 107, Issue 2, 15 October 2003, pp.183-192.
to Ts of No.1 and No.2 and obtain the values as Ts of No.3 [4] Z. Chen, X. Tan, Monolithic fabrication of ionic polymer?metal composite
and No.4 respectively. We aim to the same motion of the right actuators capable of complex deformation, Sensors and Actuators A:
and left legs by those restriction. Physical, Volume 157, Issue 2, February 2010, pp.246-257.
[5] M. De Volder, A.J.M Moers, D. Reynaerts, Fabrication and control
of miniature McKibben actuators, Sensors and Actuators A: Physical,
B. Result Volume 166, Issue 1, March 2011, pp.111-116.
Figure 13 shows the result of optimization in simulation and [6] TU Diep Cong Thanh, Kyoung Kwan Ahn, Nonlinear PID control to
improve the control performance of 2 axes pneumatic artificial muscle
the motion of the light and small robot is shown in Fig.14. manipulator using neural network, Mechatronics, Volume 16, Issue 9,
The light and small robot was operated by parameters obtained November 2006, pp.577-587.
in simulation in table V. The legs pulled up the body by [7] T. Kominami, Y. Fujimoto, Magnetic levitation control and spiral-linear
transformation system for spiral motor, 9th IEEE International Workshop
clawing the ground in parallel after the left and right legs were on Advanced Motion Control, 2006.
lifted forward by actuation alternatively. The model walked by [8] John H. Holland, Adaptation in Artificial and Natural Systems, The
repeating these action. University of Michigan Press, 1975.
[9] Sutton, R. S., Carto, A., Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction, A
Timing of actuation was the same as that in simulation Broad Book, The MIT Press, 1998.
because of employing the same parameters. Nevertheless, the
amount of changing the length at elongation or contraction
differed from it in simulation. Additionally, the amount of
movement of the robot differed from it in simulation. The force
of actuators in simulation could be larger than that of the actual
actuators. The reason is because of reduction in the amount
of changing length at actuation with a heavier load shown in
Fig.9. We decided that the force of the actuators in simulation
was 0.778[N] that is the value obtained in section II. However,

134
(a) t=0 (b) t=2 (c) t=4

(d) t=6 (e) t=8 (f) t=10

Fig. 13. Locomotion of the model in simulation.

(a) t=0 (b) t=10 (c) t=20

(d) t=30 (e) t=40 (f) t=50

Fig. 14. Locomotion of the light and small robot.

135